Nathan Bidwell
Nathan Bidwell, farmer, P. O. West Jefferson, is a son of Elisha and Dorotha (Nigh) Bidwell, both natives of Vermont, where they matured and married, and where they had born to them two sons. Early in the present century they came to Ohio and settled on the present site of Columbus, where he helped to grub a part of the land now occupied by that city. While erecting his cabin there, he became crippled in his right arm for life. His residence in that vicinity only marked a short period, when he settled in Madison County in what is now Canaan Township, purchasing land at $1.25 per acre. His death occurred in 1849, in Monroe Township, Madison County, where he had lived a few years only. His widow returned to Canaan Township with her oldest son, Uriah. In 1856, she, Uriah and another son, Washington, died of small-pox. She and Elisha were the parents of seventeen children, viz., Uriah, Isaac, Dorotha, Ephraim, Mahlon, Nathan, Addison, Polly or Mary, Jackson and Washington, twins, Augustus, Joseph, Benjamin, Leonard and Elisha. The youngest was the strongest of the family, and he and Benjamin were both killed in the war of 1861-65. Nathan was born in Canaan Township September 6, 1820, and was raised to farm life in his native township, among the pioneer privations. He had few school privileges, and possesses only a limited education. He remained at home until his majority, when he engaged as a farm hand until September 5, 1844, on which day he married Eliza J. Kennedy. She was born and raised in this county and died January 15, 1855; she was the mother of five children, two of whom died in early life. Mr. Bidwell married, for his second wife, Elmira (Hall) Thomas, widow of Roland Thomas. This union has been blessed with two children. Mr. Bidwell has always followed farming and stock-raising, and, in 1850, he settled in Jefferson Township, where he now owns 134 acres of good land.
From HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY - W. H. Beers [Chicago, 1883]